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De Trinitate

IV.

[IV 4] Cum igitur disserimus de natura mentis humanae, de una quadam re disserimus, nec eam in haec duo quae commemoravi nisi per officia geminamus. Itaque cum in ea quaerimus trinitatem, in tota quaerimus non separantes actionem rationalem in temporalibus a contemplatione aeternorum ut tertium aliquid iam quaeramus quo trinitas impleatur. Sed in tota natura mentis ita trinitatem reperiri opus est ut si desit actio temporalium cui operi necessarium sit adiutorium propter quod ad haec inferiora administranda derivetur aliquid mentis, in una nusquam dispertita mente trinitas inveniatur, et facta iam ista distributione in eo solo quod ad contemplationem pertinet aeternorum non solum trinitas sed etiam imago dei; in hoc autem quod derivatum est in actione temporalium, etiamsi trinitas possit, non tamen imago dei possit inveniri.

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The Fifteen Books of Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo, on the Trinity

Chapter 4.--The Trinity and the Image of God is in that Part of the Mind Alone Which Belongs to the Contemplation of Eternal Things.

4. When, therefore, we discuss the nature of the human mind, we discuss a single subject, and do not double it into those two which I have mentioned, except in respect to its functions. Therefore, when we seek the trinity in the mind, we seek it in the whole mind, without separating the action of the reason in things temporal from the contemplation of things eternal, so as to have further to seek some third thing, by which a trinity may be completed. But this trinity must needs be so discovered in the whole nature of the mind, as that even if action upon temporal things were to be withdrawn, for which work that help is necessary, with a view to which some part of the mind is diverted in order to deal with these inferior things, yet a trinity would still be found in the one mind that is no where parted off; and that when this distribution has been already made, not only a trinity may be found, but also an image of God, in that alone which belongs to the contemplation of eternal things; while in that other which is diverted from it in the dealing with temporal things, although there may be a trinity, yet there cannot be found an image of God.